The Punisher: An All Time Great

Today I thought I'd write about one of my favourite comic book characters. The Punisher, the man who carries out vengeance on all criminals since his family were killed in a mob hit.

His first appearance was in The Amazing Spider-man #129 in 1974. In that issue he was an antagonist for Spider-man who went about killing mobsters without a care in the world as he waged his one man war on crime. Spider-man was on his kill list as he was wanted for killing Norman Osbourne. From this initial arc The Punisher was found to be a hit with the readers and went on to feature in other titles like Daredevil and Captain America before finally getting his own solo run.

My first encounter with Frank was back in the mid-nineties. After being pulled in to the Marvel universe by the awesome animated X-Men series I decided to go to my local comic book shop, Comics Unlimited, and pick up a few comics. After browsing through the long boxes of  X-Men back issues, I decided to broaden my horizons and try something new. The first thing that caught my eye was picture of man in a black uniform that had a giant white skull emblazoned on his chest, emerging from some water while a fire burned behind him. In his hands were a grenade launcher and a machine gun. Even today I still consider it a brilliant piece of artwork. The issue was entitled Fire Fight and was 1 of 3. After a quick check I had all three in my hands.

The story was about The Punisher trying to stop an arsonist who is trying to burn down New York City. Whilst dealing with this problem Frank is being pursued by a vigilante task force who are out to capture him. I loved every bit of these books and would go back and read them again and again. From there I went about researching him where ever I could. This was hard work due to the lack of wikipedia back then!

 After about ten years away from comics I returned to them as an adult and the first thing I bought was Vol 1 of the Garth Ennis run on The Punisher Max. The Max imprint is where The Punisher belongs.  A place where there is no holding back in terms of language and violence. A place where The Punisher can truly punish. Ennis is the definitive writer when it comes to The Punisher and I especially love his story The Punisher: Born. This is a story that shows the soldier Frank Castle fighting in Vietnam before the death of his family. The dark events he faces in the war is where The Punisher is truly born.

There have been three films made of The Punisher and they go from being ok to god damn awful! The first film made in the eighties is not too bad. It has Dolph Lundgren in the main role and it hasn't aged well to be fair. Then in 2004 Thomas Jane wore the skull and again this was ok but what followed next with Ray Stephenson is just too bad to write about. Maybe now the rights have come back to Marvel they could do him right. I think the best place for him to be brought back would be as a recurring character in the upcoming Daredevil TV show. There they could use the classic stories written by Frank Millar to really establish Castle in the MCU. If all goes well there then maybe even his own show. The following short film shows how to do it right.

 I think the thing that makes me really like The Punisher is the fact he is just a normal man, maybe a bit unhinged but still normal. No super power. No money. Just a cold hard desire to stop evil in any way possible.

My Big Fat Q & A

Sorry I've not been written for a while, I've been caught up with work, family and the World Cup. I've also had a case of writers block. Because of my lack of inspiration I turned to the good people of Facebook for a helping hand. I just hope that my group are not like the majority of bat shit crazies that Internet tends to attract.

1st question is from Pete off of The Big Fat Geek Life Facebook group.

When did you first realise you were a geek?

Probably when I realised my friends were always asking me about comic book characters and I would just spiel out that character's entire life story. I think I could tell you more about most people in the Marvel Universe then I could about my own family!

 
Shane:
If you were to slide a hotdog down the A1 how likely would it be for it to touch the sides?

Errrr yeah ok. Quite likely?!


Helena has a few:
Who would win in a fight Spider-man or Batman and why?

Easy, hands down it would be Batman. If Batman cant beat Superman like he did in Dark Knight Returns then Spider-man would be a walk in the park and also Batman would win because he is Batman.


If you could write yourself into GOT what character would you be?

I would have to be a friend of Tyrion. That man is the coolest mofo in all of Westeros and he knows how to have a good time. I would end up killed in some painful way just as everybody was starting to like me!

What level on candy crush are you on?  

Level 2 I think only played it once to see what the fuss is about. 

What's the most embarrassing (to you) TV program/series you like?

I would have to say its most of the crappy day time shows on BBC1 like Homes Under the Hammer. They have a way of drawing me in and making me want to know what happens in the end.


Helen:
What makes the perfect game?

Good question.  For me it has to have a good story that pulls you in and makes you care about the characters. This doesn't have to be an all Hollywood blockbuster type story but there has to be a story of some sort. For instance Journey and Thomas Was Alone, both were simple but engaging stories that made you want to go on. Top notch graphics are not an essential, again see Thomas Was Alone, you play as different coloured blocks!

Pete:
What's the meaning of life?

42


Most under/overrated superheroes?

Most underrated would have to be Daredevil. Prior to the disaster of Ben Affleck DD had a good few runs but after the film bombed Hornhead fell out of favour. Recently the man without fear is back riding high under the excellent guidance of Mark Waid.

Most overrated would have to be, and I afraid to say it, but its Wolverine. This is purely down to the X-men films and their overuse of Logan. Non comic book reading fans of the film believe that there is no X-men with out Weapon X. I love Wolvie I do but I think I agree with Marvel and it's time for him to take a little dirt nap. 


Well that's all from The Big Fat Geek Life Facebook group. If you are on Facebook and you would like to join the group add me (Stephen Sowden) with a little message letting me know you are from here and I'll invite you in as it's currently a secret group.

When Will The Dead Stay Dead?

I've just finished issue 3 of Marvel's latest event, Original Sin, and it has got me thinking about death in comics. It seems to me that unless your name is Thomas and Martha Wayne, Uncle Ben or Gwen Stacey, then death is never the end.

If you look at the Marvel 616 universe Jean Grey has died something like 14 times! Xavier is not far behind either. Recently we have had Nightcrawler and Peter Parker come back from the dead and with Marvel planning to kill Wolverine this year how long until he is back?

Maybe with the death in Original Sin things might change and people will stay dead. It would have more of an impact when it does happen and story lines could build up some genuine fear for the safety of our favourite supes. But we all know that money talks and the cash sure does roll in when its announced a hero will die and it rolls in again when they come back.

E3 Special

E3 is on and the big dogs have done their presentations. We now have an idea of what the year ahead looks like in the world of gaming.

One thing that stands out from the conferences is the focus on co-op. It seems to be the way forward. I'd have no problem with this if I had more faith in the general public when it comes to co-op in gaming. As I stated in a previous post, people tend to be dicks online. Further on in this post will be a trailer for The Division, this is the way co-op needs to be played for it to work. Everyone communicating and working together for the greater good. What ends up happening when I play is silence, people doing their own thing not helping each other out and just chaos in general.

Anyway here is a brief round up of whats been announced.

No Man's Sky 

This game has a bit of Star Trek feel to it what with the exploration side of things. Loving the idea of a battle taking place in space and on a planet too, with the change between the two appearing seamless. The biggest thing this game has going for it though is the fact its a new IP. Its also colourful and bright compared to the usual beige and grey that most games are today. Just look at the colours, so beautiful!

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Now I know I've been bashing sequels and calling for new IPs but there are some games that deserve to have sequels. Besides its not like Naughty Dog release Uncharted on a yearly basis. The Uncharted series has been nothing but hits all the way. All of them have had tight storytelling, gorgeous visuals and slick game play. Hopefully that will continue in number 4. One downside is that it seems that this might be Drake's last outing considering the subtitle.

 Evolve

Now this looks like fun. You and a group of friends track down a giant monster and try to slay it or you go it alone as the monster and hunt the hunters. Made by the same people that brought us Left4Dead, this is another game that needs you to have a reliable group of friends to co-op with. If you don't have any friends I suppose you could be the monster and smash those happy little people who have friends whilst stomping about in a jealous rage. My one worry is will this get boring quickly being as it is multi-player only?

The Division

As I have already written about this a bit earlier all I'll say now is I WANT. But only once I have some friends on PS4.

There are more game trailers from E3 over on the trailer page as well as the conferences from Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft and EA. Enjoy!

My E3 Wishlist

E3 is right around the corner and with it (hopefully) some news on whats coming soon to our next gen machines.

Here is a run through of what I want to hear:


1) A definitive answer to whether or not The Last Guardian is being released as I'm sick to death of hearing that this is the (insert gaming expo name here) that we will get a release date.
2) Assassin's Creed is NOT going to be released yearly, then I can start building up my hunger for another game rather than being force fed it like COD.
3) COD is not being made anymore so all the obnoxious little butt monkeys that play it online can now leave gaming and go back to shouting at random passing cars and licking windows.
4) All sequels are to be cancelled and only new IP will be developed for the next 2 years.

Now I suppose I better give you some more realistic announcements that I am hoping for:

1) More news on Tom Clancy's The Division. After being announced at last years E3 its all gone quiet but this needs to be out NOW

2) News on whether or not AVI, MP4, MKV and MP3 playback will be enabled on the PS4
3) Big name games coming soon to PS Plus

That's all really as I'm quite easy to please. Anyway not long now so there will be more to write about once it starts.

Smell ya later.

Top 5

Hey guys I apologise in advance for the short post today been a bit busy with work and daddy duties.

This is my top 5 games of all time

5) Final Fantasy 7
 My first venture into JRPG's. The story was told well and that heart wrenching twist was one that I never expected.

4) Grand Theft Auto 5
After number 4 I was done with this series. It just seemed to be so boring and samey. Then GTAV dropped and I was pulled back into the life of virtual crime. The new addition of multiple characters to play as was a good one. But the best addition was the fact that they made it fun again and the online mode is one of the best online games I've played in a very long time.

3) The Walking Dead Season 1
This point and click adventure has probably the best story ever told in a video game. Rich characters and a well executed plot made this my game of the year when it came out.

2) Batman: Arkham City
This should be called "The Batman Simulator" because that is exactly what it is. If you just want to glide around Gotham and stop crime then that's what you can do. There are a lot of side missions that introduce you some lesser known villains from the Dark Knights expansive rogues gallery and really fun to play.

1) Metal Gear Solid
When this game came out I wasn't aware of its history on the NES, so the idea of stealth in a game was a whole new concept to me and it was  concept I fell in love with straight away. This game also has some of the best boss battles ever. The game kept you on your toes and would make you think outside the box with things like, fighting Mantis with the controller in the other port and looking for Meryl's codec number on the CD case. Pure genius. This game created the stealth genre and now there is not a game I can think of that doesn't have at least one stealth section. Take a bow Snake, you are number 1!

A Comic Con Experience

A couple of weeks ago the Excel Expo Centre in London hosted the MCM London Comic Con Expo. Two of my friends (Helen aka Porkchop and Shane aka Hoofbite, aka Hoof, aka Oi Git) were in attendance so I asked them about their experience.

Whateverman: Before we get started, can I just ask you to let the readers know a bit about yourselves.

Helen: I am 30 and I have been gaming since I was 4yrs old. I am engaged to Shane and we have a son who is also a big gamer too. My dad got me into gaming on his old Amiga 500. I think I played a game called Nutz first, which led me down the path of the NES and SNES, then I became hooked! I am also a collector of gaming merchandise. Love figures, clothes and bags that are to do with gaming. I'm a casual gamer, I love all sorts of games ranging from puzzle based games to shooters and horrors. I also enjoy watching movies, mostly action/SciFi/horror stuff. I used to watch a ton of anime religiously but I don't really have the time to get into a lot of it now but I still do enjoy the odd series that I hear good things about and make it a priority to watch. I also enjoy SciFi/action TV series, things like supernatural or Arrow. So as you can tell I am a big geek, the only thing I don't do is read comics ha ha!

Shane: I'm pretty much the same as Helen except I went the route of Sega, I love fighting games and I do read a hell of a lot of comics!

Whateverman: So was this your first experience of a convention? 

Shane: No, we had been to the Eurogamer Expo in September 2013.

Whateverman: As that was specifically games and this covered a broader range of things, what did you expect?

Helen: Lots of comics and cosplays

Shane: The same, only I expected a map ha ha

Whateverman: Did it meet your expectations or better them/fall short? 

Helen: Not so many comics on sale as I expected but tons of cosplayers so it was better than I expected but fell short in some aspects what with the lack of comics

Shane: I didn't expect it to be so crowded or so difficult to get in and out of the place once you had got in. It seemed over the top compared to Eurogamer where access was much easier if you needed to get some air or have a smoke if you were a smoker. It was quite upsetting that they made you queue up again to get back in.

Whateverman: When you were inside what was the atmosphere like?

Helen: Sweaty! Ha ha.

Shane: It felt very fast paced with the amount of people there but there was a happy buzz about it.

Whateverman: As with all conventions today, you can't throw a stick in these places without hitting someone cosplaying. What was the best Cosplay you saw? 

Helen: It's gonna have to be the Tank cosplay (Left 4 Dead) he had his tongue sticking out and it was HUGE!

Shane: Oh God that's a hard one, there were alot of fantastic ones, I'd probably have to go with this one guy dressed up as a Survey Corps (Attack on Titan) He had the 3D gear and it looked incredibly well made.

Whateverman: Some people really do go to town when cosplaying so what was the strangest cosplay you saw? 

Helen: This one girl, I have no idea what she was cosplaying as but you could see everything bar her naughty bits.

Shane: Has to be the guy with a Geodude for a head.

Whateverman: Did you guys cosplay?

Helen: Yeah we both did. I was Sir Trooper, basically a Clone Trooper from Star Wars but very 'dapper'

Shane: I went as a Ninja themed Sith

Whateverman: It's good to hear you were original with your cosplaying. How did you come up with the ideas for them?

Helen: I wanted something easy and cheap that hadn't been thought of yet.

Shane: Well, I had a Sith outfit and I wanted to mix it up with something, initially I wanted it to seem Pirate themed but as it came together it fitted better with a ninja look.

Whateverman: How did you make them and were they easy to create? 

Helen: I didn't make it I bought it, so pretty easy really, I did add the smoking pipe, mini top hat and moustache to the helmet though and the top hat took some work.

Shane: Pretty easy once I bought all the parts.

Whateverman: Conventions always sound like fun places to be, but was there anything that you didn't like? 

Helen: The crowds

Shane: Ditto, it made it hard to browse stores or even take in half of what people were dressed up as.

Whateverman: So that's the bad out of they way, now tell me what was your overall stand out moment?

Helen: Probably when people kept stopping me to ask for a picture, it made me quite proud of my cosplay.

Shane: I'm going to have to go with when an amazing R2-D2 came rolling through the crowds.

Whateverman: Conventions are always a good place to buy some goodies, what was the most impressive thing you saw for sale? 

Helen: It's hard to say really, there was just so much awesome stuff.

Shane: I really can't say, there was so much there and the mass majority of it was amazing!

Whateverman: So what was the most expensive thing you saw for sale? 

Helen: Probably an R2-D2 hoodie that I came across, it was about £128.

Shane: Easily the metal Master Sword replica, it was beautiful but was over £300!

Whateverman: I can tell you seemed to really enjoy it so this is a pretty pointless question, but are you planning to go again? 

Helen: Yes!

Shane: Hell yes, but on a less crowded day ha ha.

Whateverman: Thank you very much Helen and Shane for your insight!

 
So there you have it, from my roving reporters on the ground, an all round good day out! Below is some pictures from their day that they've kindly consented to share:

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Multiplayer: The Dark Side of Gaming

I finished the main story missions on Batman: Arkham Origins today and decided to give the online a whirl. I sat there watching the suggested tutorials and thought this sounds like it will be fun! I selected quick match and then just sat there for 10 whole minutes and no one joined the game. Now I will never know if the multiplayer on that game is any good, but saying that, is any multiplayer any good these days?

When I first got my PS3 and started to play online multiplayer games, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. The first game I had experienced online multiplayer with, was Warhawk. There I was every night having dogfights in the skies before dropping down to ground level to give support as a gunner on a tank. SO. MUCH. FUN! Then I got a new game and went off and played that, can't remember what it was but it didn't have multiplayer. Once that game was done after about 2-3 weeks I went back to Warhawk. Whilst I was gone, everybody else started playing that game and boy did they get good. I felt like I'd never played the game before. Just before I left, I was getting in the top 5 of the leader board at the end of each match. Now I would be lucky if I managed to string together a kill streak of 2. That highlights my first problem with multiplayer. You have to give your life to it. Take FIFA as another example of that, I have two friends that literally only play FIFA. They buy the new consoles when they come out and then their collection of games runs from F to F. They will play it every single night as do all the others that play FIFA online. The online community for FIFA is not a very welcoming place if you've just started playing online, as you will probably lose your first ten games 8-0. Now maybe it's just me and I don't have the patience to keep on trying to get better, but seriously losing by that much again and again is just soul destroying,

The second problem I have is other players. When playing co-op you might need to talk to people during the game to co-ordinate an attack or something, but when you try and talk to the others on your team no one says anything. Most of the time in co-op, I think people forget what co-op means and are clearly out for themselves. Then there are the people that do talk and tend to be the most obnoxious, racist, homophobic, scummy little ten years olds I have ever met! The abuse that gets thrown around online is vile; I worked in a pub that had 2 stabbings in a week and I never heard anything said there that could compare to the stuff said online! There is one more group of people that really do my head in and they are the ones who turn there mics on and just play really shit French rap music down it. What the hell is that all about? If I wanted to listen to shit music, I would borrow my wife's Ipod! (Sorry babe! Love you x)

Take me back to the days of split screen. The days when you would all be on the couch and the banter was funny and the bragging rights would last until the next meet up. That's multiplayer. That's fun.

All Things Serve The Beam

Let me start this post by telling you I don't like Stephen King's books. I find them very, very boring. There are 8 exceptions; The Dark Tower Saga. I don't know what drew me to buying the first book, but I remember just picking it up for 50p from a car boot sale. It then sat on my shelf for ages before I eventually picked it up to read and then I was hooked. 4 months and 6 books later my journey to the tower was complete.  Now the mathematicians out there will see I said 8 books earlier and then I only read 7 and I was done, there was an 8th book released about a year ago which takes place between 2 earlier books.

This saga is considered to be King's magnum opus. It has many connections to all his work, from Salem's Lot to IT, there are references everywhere because "All things serve the beam". Yet not many people know of these books, but if the mooted film/TV adaptations ever get made, then a lot probably will. Before that happens I implore you to get out there and read the books because you wont regret it.

I want to tell you what it's about, but I wouldn't do it justice and I'd probably end up giving too much away. So enter wiki to do it for me "The Dark Tower is a series of books written by American author Stephen King, which incorporates themes from multiple genres, including fantasy, science fantasy, horror, and Western. It describes a "gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical".

Even now years after I've finished the books I still think about Roland (the aforementioned gunslinger) and his Ka-tet. The writing of these characters is so, so good you really get a feel for these people that they end up feeling like close friends.

I will leave you with the first line from "The Gunslinger", the first book. A friend of mine told me that this was "the best opening line of a book ever written". The more I think about it, the more I agree.

"The Man in Black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed."

Marvel Dropping Fantastic Four

 
The Fantastic Four are the first family of Marvel. When they were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby back in 1961, they became the first of many. Now it appears their time is up. It has been reported on bleeding cool that The House of Ideas is dropping all comic book titles connected to the Fantastic Four. Not only that, but apparently instructions have been sent to sketch card artists to no longer draw the Fantastic Four or any of the supporting characters (Doom, Silver Surfer, Galactus etc).

This instruction has come from the very top with the Marvel CEO, Ike Pearlmutter being behind all of this. The reason for all this comes down to the movie rights. It appears Marvel no longer want to give Fox free advertising by producing a comic series featuring characters that Fox own the movie rights to. The X-Men also fall into this category but the sales of their books is just too high for Marvel to drop. That being said, Marvel are killing off one of the biggest X-Men, Wolverine, could that be related? There has been more emphasis on the Inhumans recently, with them seeming to be a possible replacement for mutants in the MCU.

Sony has a different relationship with Marvel over the rights to Spider-Man so it will be web-slinging as normal over there.

I can see why Marvel would do this but the history of the FF should not be forgotten. I just wish for one shared universe with all Marvel characters back where they belong.

What do you think? Are Marvel cutting off their nose to spite their face?